The Festival Series is delighted to welcome PokerNews on board as an official media partner! I spoke to one-man live reporting powerhouse Jason “JaxonPoker” Glatzer about the PokerNews partnership, and his plans for coverage of The Festival in Tallinn. “PokerNews has been involved in the past in Franke’s ventures including the Cash Game Festival where we covered a dozen or two dozen stops, it felt like we were at pretty much every stop for a good while,” Glatzer tells me from his home in Vilnius, Lithuania. “Franke puts on amazing events – the Cash Game Festival wasn’t just about poker, it was also about the entertainment aspect of things.”
They’re not just looking for poker
For Glatzer, as for many of the players and operators I’ve spoken to, it’s vitally important that live events should be first and foremost fun. “They’re not just looking for poker,” he says of mid-level buy-in poker festival punters, “They’re looking for a full holiday - which obviously makes the games a little better. This is not to say that some of the recs aren’t very good poker players - some of them are - but it definitely creates a different atmosphere, where players are there to have fun playing poker. The Festival seems to take that one step further, so we’re looking forward to covering that a lot.”
PokerNews are of course known for their live reporting on, well, poker - but Glatzer is enthusiastic about the casino game side of things too. “PokerNews is primarily there to report on the Main Event, along with posting some updates on some of the other poker events,” he says, “But we’re also going to make sure that we show the flavour of the event in its entirety, and sprinkle in coverage of the blackjack event, the roulette event, and all the amazing VIP activities planned outside of the casino.”
Glatzer is particularly excited for the rules of the roulette and blackjack events to be published in May. “I’m a poker player at heart,” he explains, “I’ve been playing since the early 80s when I was a young child, so I love poker - but I also love the aspect of blackjack. Not necessarily the blackjack you see in casinos, but there was an online poker site that’s no longer in existence that ran blackjack tournaments, and I dabbled in those for a while. It’s a very strategic game, even though it is still blackjack. In the same way that there are times in poker when you should even be folding aces, right? So, there are times [in tournament blackjack] when the standard move is not going to be the correct one. Because you’re not playing against the casino - you’re playing against the people sitting next to you. I think the roulette’s going to be the same thing, although it’s going to be more about bet sizes, how many bets you place and whether you cover your opponents’ bets. These tournaments are skill games. It just seems great to me as a game purist.”
People love that level of buy-in
As a veteran of countless European live events, Glatzer is of course familiar with Tallinn, and enthusiastic about it as a location for The Festival Series’ first live event. “Not only is it cash games, but also a €550 Main Event - those have run really successfully in Tallinn, whether it be the MPNPT, the Coolbet Open and several others… People love that level of buy-in. It brings out some of the professionals, but it’s mostly full of recreational players from neighbouring countries - Finland, Sweden, Norway, and, of course, the Baltics. And more recently it’s become more of a global destination - just look at the Summer Showdown this past August, a whole bunch of players came from Scotland, the Main Event was won by Firaldo - and he wants to come back, not because he won the Main Event, but because he found Tallinn to be such a fun city. I also can’t say enough great things about the venue in the Olympic Park Casino and adjoining Hilton Tallinn Park. So, I feel it’s kicking off in probably the best place possible - it’s not only Franke’s home, but also a base where players know they can come and have a good time. I’ve met people I now consider family through Franke’s Cash Game Festival events, and I expect The Festival will be even more so.”
“We look forward to a very fruitful partnership with The Festival.” Glatzer sums up. “The Festival is about more than just poker. Of course, that’s the primary reason that PokerNews are going to be there, but we want to make people understand what else is happening there, give people a flavour of it through videos or commentating. It really just depends where I can be, as I know this may sound shocking, I can only be in one place at a time. We believe that Franke’s experience alongside an interesting concept has tons of potential, and people are itching for any kind of live poker or live events in general. We look forward to its success.”
“Be sure to tune into PokerNews as we cover The Festival Series in Tallinn and Bratislava,” Glatzer reminded.
Follow Jason Glatzer on Twitter at @JaxonPoker
